Peasevern Yard - 7mm BR Blue shunting layout

[37114]

Less than 2 months to the next show for Peasevern Yard, which also has a long distance trip next year as well, this is what the calendar looks like;

 

Cheltenham 29th and 30th October 

Westbury 5th November 

MIOG Crewe 25th/26th March 2023

[Nick G]

1 minute ago, 37114 said:

MIOG Crewe 25th/26th March 2023

 

Ah good, I will get to see it in the flesh so to speak.

[37114]

Not much progress on the extension,  I am waiting until I load up for Cheltenham to see how much space I have to play with. I decided to set the layout up today, a task made much easier now PVCS has been sold as Peasevern now has wheels on it so can be up and operational in less than 15 mins.

 

Here are a few pics;

37029 in the headhunt

 

Tried a B&W shot with B133 in the background

 

37029 on the Presflos. 

 

 

One of the most commented parts of the layout, the scrap pile;

 

[37114]

One thing  I have done is ballast the end of the cassettes that connect to the layout; one of the visitors at Larkrail said it would make the exit to the fiddle yard less obvious which was a good shout. I just need to weather them now.

 

03382 got a run as well

[Nick G]

Looking good, just ordered a grey Presflo for my plank.

[37114]

1 hour ago, Nick G said:

Looking good, just ordered a grey Presflo for my plank.

They are nice model Nick, if I did a garden layout then a rake of them would look excellent. 

[37114]

Final run today ahead of what will be 2 weekends in a row at shows; Cheltenham this weekend, Westbury on the 5th. The track was filthy, as the layout lives in the garage ot gets quite dusty while the wheels on the stock were less than gleaming. 08950 has developed a dislike to the feedback controller which is odd as it has been fine up until now. With the setup I have I can switch between straight DC and DC with feedback so this isn't an issue. 

 

To give it a proper run the class 121 ventured onto unfamiliar territory;

 

That's it now all ready for Saturday!

 

[jcarta]

Have a great free running two weekends.....😃

[37114]

Looks like an extension to the layout is on, having loaded the car ready for Cheltenham I can fit a similar sized scenic board in the space in the car. Basically the fiddle yard will go on top of the new board which won't need wheels as it will stow on top of the existing board when it is in the garage. 

 

I will get the next few weeks out of the way then look to get the timber for the new board

[Barnaby]

Wot a grotty layout................................... That's a compliment by the way Rob.  That waste metal pile is very dramatic indeed.   I've been doing some reading on small scrap metal rail locations and what you have achieved is very lifelike.

I haven't visited for some time, so I need to play catch up and have a good read.

 

Great work.

 

Best

Edited October 28, 2022 by Barnaby

[37114]

4 hours ago, Barnaby said:

Wot a grotty layout................................... That's a compliment by the way Rob.  That waste metal pile is very dramatic indeed.   I've been doing some reading on small scrap metal rail locations and what you have achieved is very lifelike.

I haven't visited for some time, so I need to play catch up and have a good read.

 

Great work.

 

Best

Thanks Barnaby, the scrap pile grows over time slowly as I add the odd extra bit, there are a few new bits for Cheltenham. There is no substitute for weathering each bit individually but it is laborious!

[37114]

Good day today, busy time this morning. I took a few shots later on including one of an interloper out for a test run!

 

 

[Rich Papper]

Hi Rob. Good to chat earlier - thank you for your automotive pointers. Layout looks great - a very effective use of the space.

Hope tomorrow is as good.

Rich

[37114]

Today's interloper was this class 50 which in its current guise is too new for the layout ( it is also not mine)

 

Other inappropriate locos was permanent resident 37029

 

03382 was also in action 

[37114]

All set up for Westbury show, 03121 is the test train to check it all works

[37114]

Another one from today. Good show and nice to catch up with some familiar faces

[37114]

I generally like to think I am pretty good at avoiding "Scope Creep" but I failed today, more of which anon. On the back of 2 weeks on the bounce exhibiting the layout I now feel to have properly fathomed out it's foibles, and identified a little bit of work required on the fiddle yard so set about fixing a few things today.

 

Firstly I worked out at Cheltenham I was probably one cassette short as I needed to use the cassette from the upper level on the lower level for shunting.  One of the longer cassettes was also suffering from a severe case of warping so I decided that I would salvage the track and remake it with new Ply. I also found the fiddle yard deck slightly too low so I was continually lifting the cassettes up to join them to the layout.

 

I made the new DMU cassette slightly longer so the DMU was properly off scene when in the fiddle yard as it was originally still visible which destroyed a bit of the illusion

It was at this point the scope Creep came in... With the DMU further back the fiddle yard is much more visible and the abrupt end to the platform stood out a bit too obviously;

I decided that I would modify the backscene to extend the platform into the fiddle yard and to do so would require some modification to the ply end panel to follow the profile of the building.  Luckily none of the buildings are glued to the end so it was a simple job to unscrew it.

 

I then set about making an extension to the platform which is made from picture mount card. The extension is not long as the DMU will hide the latter part of the fiddle yard

 

I then knocked up an extension to the elevator tower and platform canopy. In my opinion it makes a real difference visually from the layout side. The platform surface is still to be done.

 

One quandary that has come up is the information board which was obviously only half a board before today and for whatever reason I appear to not be able to find the other half of it. I have no idea where I got it or who makes it, any ideas please??

[37114]

I have managed to upload a few of the photos earlier in the tread, for some reason some have survived and between the ones I have re-uploaded the thread tells most of the story.

 

I have made further progress with the fiddle yard once I gained access

 

As can be seen I managed to work out whose posters I had used for the other part of the station.  They are from Trackside signs.

 

Here is the basic structure in place;

I dusted off the trusty Mk1 BG picture which has appears on the main layout as well as Peafore Yard and stuck that to the back of the fiddle yard. Due to the hinge I had to horizontaly cut it as well. I added some wet and dry for the platform surface as well as the posters including the missing half from the poster on the main layout. 

 

I decided to add an extra person to the platform as well as a litter bin.

 

I didn't have time to put the full layout up tonight but am looking forward to see what it looks like.

[37114]

New toy! Mk1 CCT, this will see use mostly on the upper level instead of the DMU occasionally. First impression is a good job by Heljan on this but I am not a CCT expert 

 

 

[The Evil Bus Driver]

Good to see developments on here. I've been following with interest.  And the commander in chief needed to collect the fuss tax too.

[Clive martin]

Hi Robb another great layout report i have always enjoyed all your layout updates i used to love reading about Pallet Lane , that was quite sometime ago now.  how time flys ,will you have a space for your wonderfull Leyland national on the layout!

[37114]

2 hours ago, Clive martin said:

Hi Robb another great layout report i have always enjoyed all your layout updates i used to love reading about Pallet Lane , that was quite sometime ago now.  how time flys ,will you have a space for your wonderfull Leyland national on the layout!

Thanks Clive, very kind of you to say,  yes Pallet Lane feels like a while ago now, the name board for it is up on the garage wall, albeit I believe the layout lives on.

 

The plan is an extension to the layout next year after Crewe, the National will appear on the end of the extension all being well.

[37114]

Playtime today as it is less than 3 months to the next outing at Crewe. I wanted to test the layout now that the platform extension is complete as is the CCT.

 

The Platform extension; this looks better but will get a few tweaks to improve the join:

The new CCT, now weathered:

37029 was the initial loco of choice,  especially as I had to do some minor bogie repairs after Westbury 

 

 

This shot was a new angle, it basically required my phone to be placed in the canal...

[37114]

Some more photos from today, 03121 got used later with the 8 Presflos. 

 

Race ya...

 

03121 from the canal.

 

 

[37114]

Last lot for today

 

I quite liked this shot of 03121 framed by the crane

 

Another fave, inspired by an Andy Kirkham shot

 

Last one of the CCT.